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My grandma's baking advice nearly ruined my first sourdough
She told me to just eyeball the hydration and add flour until it felt right. I ended up with a brick that could double as a doorstop after 2 hours of kneading in my tiny kitchen in Portland. Took me 3 more tries with a scale to finally get a decent loaf. Anyone else have a relative give you baking advice that totally backfired?
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charlie19815h ago
Does the scale really matter if grandma's feel was actually right for her oven @thomas.river?
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shanes6612h ago
bro that grandma feel method is such a trap, i did the same thing my first time and it turned into a hockey puck lmao. what actually saved me was just following a basic 100% hydration recipe with exact grams for a few bakes until i understood what the dough was supposed to look like at each stage. once i had that baseline, then i could kinda guess closer to how much flour to add without turning it into a brick. scales are cheap and they honestly take all the stress out of it. your grandma meant well but that's how you end up with a loaf that could dent a car.
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thomas.river21h ago
My neighbor here in Portland had the exact same problem with her first sourdough. She followed her aunt's advice and just kept adding flour until it stopped being sticky, ended up with this dense loaf that barely rose at all. It wasn't until she got a cheap digital scale at Fred Meyer that she realized her aunt was always off by like half a cup of flour. Now she swears by weighing everything and tells her aunt she just got lucky with her old recipes.
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